Tag: Physics
What happens when different materials are released in the finge fields of the world's strongest magnet? It's a race that appears to defy gravity, but is instead an amazing way to see the effect of eddy currents on metals.
What happens when you throw a magnetic football next to the world's strongest magnet? Touchdown!
Watch how changing the atmospheric pressure around objects can change their size.
Watch a junkyard magnet squash water jugs and melons using the power of electromagnets.
Watch this metal sphere levitate in the bore of an induction coil and learn why it happens.
This model train demonstrates magnetic levitation, the Meissner Effect and magnetic flux trapping.
An up-close view of a favorite Open House demo, carbo-loaded with information on how the pneumatic potato launcher works.
A MagLab physicist and engineer pair up to demonstrate the lab's famous Quarter Shrinking Machine, a loud, stinky illustration of electrodynamics, circuits, Lenz’s Law and Lorenz forces.
This cool trick appears to defy gravity and time, but is instead another demonstration of the awesome powers of electromagnetism.
Capacitors can store electrical energy and discharge it quickly, powering things like flash bulbs and starter motors.
DC motors make things like appliances and power tools work by converting electrical energy to mechanical energy. Find out how.
EMF, or electromotive force, refers to the voltage created by a battery or by a changing magnetic field. Counter EMF, also called Back EMF, is a related phenomenon that we will illustrate in this animation.
Conventional automobiles burn gasoline in an internal combustion engine and convert that energy into motion. But first a spark is needed to ignite the fuel mixture. This animation shows how a 12-volt battery generates the high voltage required to create such a discharge.
You use it to pop popcorn and heat up soup. Now learn what happens behind the microwave door.
Watch how Hans Christian Oersted discovered quite by accident in 1820 that electricity and magnetism are related.
Take a journey into the center of a one of our magnets to watch an experiment on graphene, one of many things scientists study at the MagLab.
Used originally to charge particles in atomic accelerators, Van de Graaff generators are now used mostly to educate students about electrostatics. See how they generate the static electricity that can make your hair stand on end.
Learn to use your own two hands to understand the relationship between electricity and magnetism.
What happens when you put an electrical current in a magnetic field? Although it looks like magic, it's really the Lorentz force.
Take a journey into the center of a one of our magnets to watch an experiment on graphene, one of many things scientists study at the MagLab.
Used originally to charge particles in atomic accelerators, Van de Graaff generators are now used mostly to educate students about electrostatics. See how they generate the static electricity that can make your hair stand on end.
Watch how Hans Christian Oersted discovered quite by accident in 1820 that electricity and magnetism are related.
Conventional automobiles burn gasoline in an internal combustion engine and convert that energy into motion. But first a spark is needed to ignite the fuel mixture. This animation shows how a 12-volt battery generates the high voltage required to create such a discharge.
Capacitors can store electrical energy and discharge it quickly, powering things like flash bulbs and starter motors.
EMF, or electromotive force, refers to the voltage created by a battery or by a changing magnetic field. Counter EMF, also called Back EMF, is a related phenomenon that we will illustrate in this animation.
You use it to pop popcorn and heat up soup. Now learn what happens behind the microwave door.
What happens when you put an electrical current in a magnetic field? Although it looks like magic, it's really the Lorentz force.
Every time you plug something into the electricity in your house, you are utilizing the power of alternating current (AC.)
A capacitor is similar to a battery, but a few key differences make them crucial additions to many machines.
The invention of the magnetic compass radically changed the way humans navigated from place to place. Travelers could orient themselves even when the skies were cloudy and there wasn’t a landmark in sight.
This simple direct current (DC) motor has been created by pairing a permanent magnet and an electromagnet. The permanent magnet is called a stator because it doesn’t move. The electromagnet is a spinning coil of wire and is often called the rotor. A battery is connected to the circuit, and a magnetic field is created when current flows through the wire. That magnetic field interacts with the field of the permanent magnet, and the coil turns until the two fields are aligned.
When a permanent magnet is moved inside of a copper wire coil, electrical current flows inside of the wire. This important physics phenomenon is called electromagnetic induction.
Whenever current travels through a conductor, a magnetic field is generated.
Why can some materials be turned into magnets? It’s all thanks to magnetic domains.
In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism in this very simple experiment.
The Van de Graaff generator is a popular tool for teaching the principles of electrostatics. You might remember it as the thing that made your hair stand on end. It’s now largely used for educational purposes, but it was invented by Robert J. Van de Graaff in 1930 to power early particle accelerators.
You can create a stronger, more concentrated magnetic field by taking wire and forming it into a coil called a solenoid.
Metals conduct electricity because their atoms have free electrons that can move between them. As those free electrons move through the metal conductor, some of them crash into things along the way like protons, neutrons, and even other electrons. Those collisions give “resistance” to the movement of the free electrons and generate heat. The resistance is increased further if the metal is exposed to an outside heating source, which causes all particles in the material to move more.
Mass spectrometers are instruments that give scientists information on the composition of a material. Mass spectrometers can pick apart complex substances and analyze their atoms and molecules by observing how they react to magnetic fields.
Mass spectrometers are instruments that give scientists insight into the composition of complex materials. These spectrometers can analyze materials and identify atoms and molecules by examining how they react to magnetic fields.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines, commonly known as MRIs, are awesome diagnostic tools for medical applications and research. Relying on strong superconducting magnets, they save countless lives with their ability to visualize tumors and other medical abnormalities.
This tutorial takes a shot at explaining how circuits can be used to measure things beyond the capacity of human senses.
Certain metals exhibit a strong response to a magnetic field. But everything reacts to magnetic fields in some way.
This device demonstrates how parallel wires attract because of the magnetic fields they generate.
Just a year after electromagnetism was discovered, the great scientist Michael Faraday figured out how to turn it into motion.
This simple device transforms the mechanical energy of the vibrating guitar strings into electrical energy.
Italian scientist Alessandro Volta was the first to recognize key principles of electrochemistry, and applied those principles to the creation of the first battery.
This tutorial illustrates the flow of electricity through a circuit and how that flow is impacted by resistors in the circuit.
A pair of parallel wires serves to illustrate a principle that French scientist André-Marie Ampère was the first to comprehend.
For decades, the Cathode Ray Tube was used for video displays from televisions to computer screens.
A fun way to illustrate electrostatic forces from a Van de Graaff generator.
When a magnetic field is applied to a flowing current, it creates a weak but measurable voltage. This is the Hall effect.
Electricity goes through some ups and downs on its way from the power plant to your house. Here's how it works.
Transformers are devices that transfer a voltage from one circuit to another circuit via induction.
Arc lamps were the first type of electric light, so brilliant the lamps were used for lighthouses and street lights.
How does a microwave heat your food? Water interacting with high-frequency electromagnetic waves.
Though simple by today's standards, the early electrostatic generators were a great milestone in humankind's understanding of electricity.
Out of a humble ice pail the great experimentalist Michael Faraday created a device to demonstrate key principles of attraction, repulsion and electrostatic induction.
In 1855, a French physicist created a device that illustrated how eddy currents work.
Sir Oliver Lodge's experiment demonstrating the first tunable radio receiver was an important stepping stone on the path toward the invention of a practical radio.
Magnetic shunts are often used to adjust the amount of flux in the magnetic circuits found in most electrical motors.
English chemist John Frederick Daniell came up with a twist on the simple voltaic cell.
The newest electric meters rely on different techniques to measure usage. But power to many homes and businesses is still monitored by traditional meters like the one explained in this tutorial. It also shows how usage of various appliances impacts power consumption.
Like resistance, reactance slows down an electrical current. This phenomenon occurs only in AC circuits.
Two heads — or even three — are better than one when it comes to understanding how tape recorders harness electromagnetic induction.
A wire fashioned into a pendulum moves inside a magnetic field, demonstrating the Lorentz force.
Electromotive Force is an important phenomenon that impacts the way electrons flow through a conductor.
Magnetic core memory was developed in the late 1940s and 1950s, and remained the primary way in which early computers read, wrote and stored data until RAM came along in the 1970s.
This circuit is most commonly used to determine the value of an unknown resistance to an electrical current.
Why do physicists want to study things at temperatures so cold atomic motion almost comes to a halt? And how do they create such frigid environments, anyway? Read on for the what, how and why of low temperature physics.
They don't call it super for nothing. Once you get a superconductor going, it'll keep on ticking like the Energizer Bunny, only a lot longer. The catch is, it needs to be kept colder than Pluto.
Fear not, right-brained friends: Science and art intersect in plenty of places, and this is one of them. Samuel Taylor Coleridge lends a hand as we explore cryogenics – how to get things fantastically frigid – and the fascinating element that makes it all possible.
How do lasers help shine a light on MagLab research? Read and see for yourself!
From idea to published paper, every experiment follows a similar path of inquiry.
Whether with people, particles or the forces of physics, love always finds a way.
When it comes to talent, versatility and the power to change the world, which atomic particle is the champ? Read what our four contenders have to say — then you decide.
Sometimes, science can be a bit like making a good sandwich — but one a little more complex than your average PB&J.
And now for something completely different: 10 high-field physics predictions that Monty Python nailed.
A step-by-step look at how one physicist uses magnets to understand superconductors, spin liquids and why some materials get frustrated.
Although he was not the first person to observe a connection between electricity and magnetism, André-Marie Ampère was the first scientist to attempt to theoretically explain and mathematically describe the phenomenon.
Svante Arrhenius was born in Vik, Sweden, and became the first native of that country to win the Nobel Prize.
John Bardeen was one of a handful of individuals awarded the Nobel Prize twice and the first scientist to win dual awards in physics.
J. Georg Bednorz jointly revolutionized superconductivity research with K. Alex Müller by discovering an entirely new class of superconductors, often referred to as high-temperature superconductors.
A native of Germany, the physicist Gerd Binnig co-developed the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with Heinrich Rohrer while the pair worked together at the IBM Research Laboratory in Switzerland.
Physicist Felix Bloch developed a non-destructive technique for precisely observing and measuring the magnetic properties of nuclear particles.
Long before his name began gracing kitchen appliances, Bosch made improvements to the magneto that had far-reaching improvements in the automobile industry.
Walter Houser Brattain discovered the photo-effect that occurs at the free surface of a semiconductor and was co-creator of the point-contact transistor, which paved the way for the more advanced types of transistors that eventually replaced vacuum tubes in almost all electronic devices in the latter half of the 20th century.
Leon Cooper shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and Robert Schrieffer, with whom he developed the first widely accepted theory of superconductivity.
Born in Palo Alto, California, and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts – homes to Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively – you could say Eric Cornell was destined to become a renowned scientist.
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb invented a device, dubbed the torsion balance, that allowed him to measure very small charges and experimentally estimate the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged bodies.
Humphry Davy was a pioneer in the field of electrochemistry who used electrolysis to isolate many elements from the compounds in which they occur naturally.
Peter Debye carried out pioneering studies of molecular dipole moments, formulated theories of magnetic cooling and of electrolytic dissociation, and developed an X-ray diffraction technique for use with powdered, rather than crystallized, substances.
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was an outstanding twentieth century theoretical physicist whose work was fundamental to the development of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics.
Vásárosnaményi Báró Eötvös Loránd, better known as Roland EEötvös or Loránd Eötvös throughout much of the world, was a Hungarian physicist who is most recognized for his extensive experimental work involving gravity, but who also made significant studies of capillarity and magnetism.
A self-educated man with a brilliant mind, Michael Faraday was born in a hardscrabble neighborhood in London.
Theoretical physicist Richard Phillips Feynman greatly simplified the way in which the interactions of particles could be described through his introduction of the diagrams that now bear his name (Feynman diagrams) and was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his reworking of quantum electrodynamics (QED).
John Ambrose Fleming was an electronics pioneer who invented the oscillation valve, or vacuum tube, a device that would help make radios, televisions, telephones and even early electronic computers possible.
Although he is best known as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, Carl Friedrich Gauss was also a pioneer in the study of magnetism and electricity.
Murray Gell-Mann is a theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1969 for his contributions to elementary particle physics.
William Gilbert was an English physician and natural philosopher who wrote a six-volume treatise that compiled all of the information regarding magnetism and electricity known at the time.
Joseph Henry was an American scientist who pioneered the construction of strong, practical electromagnets and built one of the first electromagnetic motors.
The discovery of radio waves, which was widely seen as confirmation of James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory and paved the way for numerous advances in communication technology, was made by German physicist Heinrich Hertz.
Karl Jansky, who discovered extraterrestrial radio waves while investigating possible sources of interference in shortwave radio communications across the Atlantic for Bell Laboratories, is often known as the father of radio astronomy.
James Prescott Joule experimented with engines, electricity and heat throughout his life.
For a man whose career involved entire known universe, John Kraus had a remarkably insular upbringing.
While growing up in the Soviet Union, Lev Landau was so far ahead of his classmates that he was ready to begin college at age 13.
At the turn of the 19th century, scientists were beginning to gain a rudimentary understanding of electricity and magnetism, but they knew almost nothing about the relationship between the two.
Siegmund Loewe was a German engineer and businessman that developed vacuum tube forerunners of the modern integrated circuit.
Theodore Maiman built the world's first operable laser, which utilized a small synthetic rod with silvered ends to produce a narrow beam of monochromatic light with a wavelength of approximately 694 nanometers.
James Clerk Maxwell was one of the most influential scientists of the nineteenth century.
Walther Meissner discovered while working with Robert Ochsenfeld that superconductors expel relatively weak magnetic fields from their interior and are strongly diamagnetic.
Robert Andrews Millikan was a prominent American physicist who made lasting contributions to both pure science and science education.
In their search for new superconductors, Swiss theoretical physicist Karl Alexander Müller and his young colleague, J. Georg Bednorz, abandoned the metal alloys typically used in superconductivity research in favor of a class of oxides known as perovskites.
Georg Simon Ohm had humble roots and struggled financially throughout most of his life, but the German physicist is well known today for his formulation of a law, termed Ohm's law, describing the mathematical relationship between electrical current, resistance and voltage.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch physicist who first observed the phenomenon of superconductivity while carrying out pioneering work in the field of cryogenics.
A discovery by Hans Christian Ørsted forever changed the way scientists think about electricity and magnetism.
Austrian-born scientist Wolfgang Ernst Pauli made numerous important contributions to twentieth-century theoretical physics, including explaining the Zeeman effect, first postulating the existence of the neutrino, and developing what has come to be known as the Pauli exclusion principle.
Although he didn't start studying physics until he retired from the clock-making business at age 30, French native Jean Peltier made immense contributions to science that still reverberate today.
In a career that lasted seven decades, Max Planck achieved an enduring legacy with groundbreaking discoveries involving the relationship between heat and energy, but he is most remembered as the founder of the "quantum theory."
Edward Mills Purcell was an American physicist who received half of the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for his development of a new method of ascertaining the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei.
Isidor Isaac Rabi won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his development of a technique for measuring the magnetic characteristics of atomic nuclei.
Swiss physicist Heinrich Rohrer co-invented the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a non-optical instrument that allows the observation of individual atoms in three dimensions, with Gerd Binnig.
While still in graduate school, John Robert Schrieffer developed with John Bardeen and Leon Cooper a theoretical explanation of superconductivity that garnered the trio the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972.
Theoretical physicist Julian Schwinger used the mathematical process of renormalization to rid the quantum field theory developed by Paul Dirac of serious incongruities with experimental observations that had nearly prompted the scientific community to abandon it.
Claude Shannon was a mathematician and electrical engineer whose work underlies modern information theory and helped instigate the digital revolution.
William Bradford Shockley was head of the solid-state physics team at Bell Labs that developed the first point-contact transistor, which he quickly followed up with the invention of the more advanced junction transistor.
In 1866, the research of Werner von Siemens would lead to his discovery of the dynamo electric principle that paved the way for the large-scale generation of electricity through mechanical means.
Awarded more than 100 patents over the course of his lifetime, Nikola Tesla was a man of considerable genius and vision.
Joseph John Thomson, better known as J. J. Thomson, was a British physicist who first theorized and offered experimental evidence that the atom was a divisible entity rather than the basic unit of matter, as was widely believed at the time.
William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, was one of the most eminent scientists of the nineteenth century and is best known today for inventing the international system of absolute temperature that bears his name.
Japanese theoretical physicist Sin-Itiro Tomonaga resolved key problems with the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) developed by Paul Dirac in the late 1920s through the use of a mathematical technique he referred to as renormalization.
Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist whose skepticism of Luigi Galvani's theory of animal electricity led him to propose that an electrical current is generated by contact between different metals.
Researching magnetism with the great mathematician and astronomer Karl Friedrich Gauss in the 1830s, German physicist Wilhelm Weber developed and enhanced a variety of devices for sensitively detecting and measuring magnetic fields and electrical currents.
Carl Edwin Wieman is one of three physicists credited with the discovery of a fifth phase of matter, for which he was awarded a share of the prestigious Nobel Prize in 2001.
Fire lighted the night for many centuries before humans discovered new ways to illuminate their lives.
Two years after Englishman John Ambrose Fleming invented a two-electrode vacuum tube, American inventor Lee De Forest one-upped him by developing a tube with three electrodes.
To understand a bubble chamber, picture the long, white streak an airplane leaves in its wake.
As more and more American households acquired telephones, the pressure was on to create a better cable to accommodate the increasing demand. Engineers Lloyd Espenschied and Herman Affel answered the call.
English chemist Sir William Crookes (1832 – 1919) invented the Crookes tube to study gases, which fascinated him. His work also paved the way for the revolutionary discovery of the electron and the invention of X-ray machines.
Odd though it seems today, when Thomas Davenport was selling one of the first electric motors way back in the 1830s, nobody was buying.
The first compass was used not to point people in the right direction literally, but figuratively.
Although it never quite measured up to expectations, the Edison battery paved the way for the modern alkaline battery.
From the Stone Age to today, the search is constantly underway for better, more efficient ways to cook food. Reflecting many of the advances in science and technology, the electric range has become a popular choice for homes and businesses.
A very primitive capacitor, this early device allowed scientists to give discs of metal specific charge.
Otto von Guericke's electrostatic machine evolved into increasingly improved instruments in the hands of later scientists. In the early 1700s, an Englishman named Francis Hauksbee designed his own electrostatic generator, a feat stemming from his studies of mercury.
Few inventions have shaped technology as much as the electric motor, but the very first version — the Faraday motor — didn't look anything like the modern motor.
Compared to incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps last longer, require less energy and produce less heat, advantages resulting from the different way in which they generate light.
Several years before the telegraph created by American inventor Samuel Morse revolutionized communications, two German scientists built their own functional telegraph.
Counting alpha particles was tedious and time-consuming work, until Hans Geiger came up with a device that did the job automatically.
For centuries, the electroscope was one of the most popular instruments used by scientists to study electricity. Abraham Bennet first described this version in 1787.
Zenobe Theophile Gramme (1826 – 1901) invented the first industrial generator, or dynamo. A deceptively simple-looking machine, it consisted of 30 coils wrapped around a spinning ring of iron.
The first hydroelectric power plant, known as the Vulcan Street Plant, was powered by the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin.
American inventor Vladimir Zworykin, the “father of television," conceived two components key to that invention: the iconoscope and the kinescope.
Found in more homes than any other appliance, the kettle has steadily evolved from an ancient tool to an important modern convenience.
Because they could store significant amounts of charge, Leyden jars allowed scientists to experiment with electricity in a way never before possible.
The history of electricity and magnetism starts with this special mineral possessing amazing, and still mysterious, properties.
The railroad industry began in the frontier days, magnetic levitation has moved it squarely into the space age.
The Earth, the moon, the stars and just about everything in between has a magnetic field, and scientists use magnetometers when they need to know the strength of those fields.
Although they have applications at the highest levels of scientific research, magnetron tubes are used every day by non-scientists who just want to heat their food in a hurry.
A number of distinguished scientists had a hand in the discovery of "wireless telegraphy," but it was the work done by Guglielmo Marconi that is credited with providing the basis of radio as we know it today.
The man most commonly associated with the telegraph, Samuel Morse, did not invent the communications tool. But he developed it, commercialized it and invented the famous code for it that bears his name.
Named in honor of Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, Denmark’s first satellite has been observing and mapping the magnetic field of the Earth.
Compasses had been steering people in the right direction for many centuries when, in the year 1820, one particular compass made a very different sort of revelation to an unsuspecting Danish science professor.
From the auto shop to the doctor's office, the oscilloscope is an important diagnostic tool.
French physicist Gaston Planté invented the first rechargeable battery, leaving an enduring legacy in battery history. To see it, just pop the hood of your car.
Spurred by Hans Christian Ørsted's discovery of a relationship between electricity and magnetism, German chemist Julian Schweigger immediately began tinkering and soon came up with a very early galvanometer known as the Schweigger multiplier.
Applying discoveries Michael Faraday had made a few decades earlier, William Stanley designed the first commercial transformer for Westinghouse in 1886.
In the 17th century, German scientist Otto von Guericke built and carried out experiments with a sulfur globe that produced static electricity.
By the late 1800s, electricity had long been discovered and was no longer considered a novelty. The science of how to store, enhance, or transmit electrical current was just beginning to evolve, and eccentric scientist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was on the cutting edge of that research.
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb didn't invent the torsion balance, but he was the first to discover it could be used to measure electrical charge – the first device capable of such a feat.
For thousands of years, electricity was an ephemeral phenomenon – there one second and gone the next. The voltaic pile changed that forever.
This device for measuring resistance in a circuit, still widely used today, was "discovered" in 1843, but had been invented a decade earlier. The inventor's name was not Wheatstone.
In the modern world, virtually everyone is familiar with electricity as an accessible, essential form of energy.
Most of us have seen the rainbow-hued breakdown of the composition of light. Light is of course a form of energy. A magnetic field changes the behavior of light — a phenomenon known as the Zeeman effect.
English mathematician Peter Barlow devised an instrument in 1822 that built on advances from earlier in the century, including the invention of the battery, to create a very early kind of electric motor.
A galvanometer is an instrument that can detect and measure small amounts of current in an electrical circuit.
The rheostat was developed in the mid-1800s by Charles Wheatstone as a means of varying resistance in a circuit.
Aided by tools such as static electricity machines and leyden jars, scientists continue their experiments into the fundamentals of magnetism and electricity.
With his famous kite experiment and other forays into science, Benjamin Franklin advances knowledge of electricity, inspiring his English friend Joseph Priestley to do the same.
Scientists take important steps toward a fuller understanding of electricity, as well as some fruitful missteps, including an elaborate but incorrect theory on animal magnetism that sets the stage for a groundbreaking invention.
Alessandro Volta invents the first primitive battery, discovering that electricity can be generated through chemical processes; scientists quickly seize on the new tool to invent electric lighting. Meanwhile, a profound insight into the relationship between electricity and magnetism goes largely unnoticed.
Hans Christian Ørsted’s accidental discovery that an electrical current moves a compass needle rocks the scientific world; a spate of experiments follows, immediately leading to the first electromagnet and electric motor.
The legendary Faraday forges on with his prolific research and the telegraph reaches a milestone when a message is sent between Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD.
The Industrial Revolution is in full force, Gramme invents his dynamo and James Clerk Maxwell formulates his series of equations on electrodynamics.
The telephone and first practical incandescent light bulb are invented while the word "electron" enters the scientific lexicon.
Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison duke it out over the best way to transmit electricity and Heinrich Hertz is the first person (unbeknownst to him) to broadcast and receive radio waves.
Scientists discover and probe x-rays and radioactivity, while inventors compete to build the first radio.
Albert Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity and his theory on the quantum nature of light, which he identified as both a particle and a wave. With ever new appliances, electricity begins to transform everyday life.
Scientists' understanding of the structure of the atom and of its component particles grows, the phone and radio become common, and the modern television is born.
New tools such as special microscopes and the cyclotron take research to higher levels, while average citizens enjoy novel amenities such as the FM radio.
Defense-related research leads to the computer, the world enters the atomic age and TV conquers America.
Computers evolve into PCs, researchers discover one new subatomic particle after another and the space age gives our psyches and science a new context.
Scientists explore new energy sources, the World Wide Web spins a vast network and nanotechnology is born.
Color, connect the dots and word-search to learn about magnets in this cool activity book available both in English and in Spanish.
Magnetic fields are invisibile, but with this activity you can – abracadabra – make the field lines appear!
Compasses are actually very simple. If you ever forget which way is north, follow these steps to make one yourself.
What do you get when you mix a battery, a bit of copper wire and a nail? One of the most important forces in science. Try it yourself and let the force be with you!
This iron-packed substance has a dual personality; one second it's a liquid, the next it's a solid. Mix up a batch at home and see how this unique stuff works.
Iron is found in magnet, steel beams – and in our food! It tastes better in cashews than in bar magnets!
Watch crystals grow in this time lapse footage and learn how to grow your own crystals at home.
When you draw a triangle inside a triangle again and again and again at smaller scales, you are making a fractal. A fractal is a pattern that repeats forever, and every part of the fractal, regardless of how zoomed-in or zoomed-out, looks the same as the whole image.
Directions for teaching a hands-on lesson on compasses in science class and in other subjects.
Hands-on exploring is the best way to learn about permanent and temporary magnets.
This lesson on plotting electric fields lines can help students visualize the mostly invisible electromagnetic force.
Combining subatomic particles, science, photography and more, this lesson can be used in science class or many other subjects.
Magnetic domains are critical for magnetizing and unmagnetizing as displayed in this hands-on lesson about creating and destroying magnetic fields.
Decades ago, a mechanism was proposed that described a quantum phase transition to an insulating ground state from a semi-metal (excitonic insulator, or EI) using very similar mechanics to those found in the BCS description of superconductivity. The discovery of this transition to an EI in InAs/GaSb quantum wells is striking not only for the long-sought experimental realization of important physics, but also the presence of recently proposed topological behavior.
In the 14 years since its discovery, graphene has amazed scientists around the world with both the ground-breaking physics and technological potential it displays. Recently, scientists from Penn State University added to graphene's gallery of impressive scientific achievements and constructed a map that will aid future exploration of this material. This work is emblematic of the large number of university-based materials research efforts that use the MagLab to explore the frontiers of science.
This work provides important insight into one of the parent materials of iron-based superconductors.
Scientists found that the emergence of an exotic quantum mechanical phase in Ce1-xNdxCoIn5 is due to a shape change in the Fermi surface. This finding ran counter to theoretical arguments and has led investigators in new directions.
Scientists have long pursued the goal of superconductivity at room temperature. This work opens a route towards one day stabilizing superconductivity at room temperature, which could open tremendous technological opportunities.
Scientists revealed previously unobserved and unexpected FQH states in monolayer graphene that raise new questions regarding the interaction between electrons in these states.
The observation of topological states coupled with superconductivity represents an opportunity for scientists to manipulate nontrivial superconducting states via the spin-orbit interaction. While superconductivity has been extensively studied since its discovery in 1910, the advent of topological materials gives scientists a new avenue to explore quantum matter. BiPd is being studied using "MagLab-sized fields" by scientists from LSU in an effort to determine if it is indeed a topological superconductor.
Research on doped SrCu2(BO3)2 shows anomalies in the magnetization.
A nematic phase is where the molecular/atomic dynamics show elements of both liquids and solids, like in liquid crystal displays on digital watches or calculators. Using high magnetic fields and high pressure, researchers probed the electronic states of an iron-based superconductor and found that its nematic state weakened superconductivity.
Topological semimetals are an exciting new area of research due to their number of predicted and unexpected quantum mechanical states. Understanding these materials may also lead to quantum devices that function at near room temperature.
Materials with magnetoelectric coupling - a combination of magnetic and electric properties - have potential applications in low-power magnetic sensing, new computational devices and high-frequency electronics. Here, researchers find a new class of magnetoelectric materials controlled by spin state switching.
Magnetic induction is used in technology to convert an applied magnetic field into an electric current and vice versa. Nature also makes extensive use of this principle at the atomic and molecular level giving scientists a window to observe material properties. Using the 25 T Split-Helix magnet, researchers observed changes in the optical properties of organic materials due to currents induced by applied magnetic fields flowing in molecular rings, evidence that could increase the list of materials that could be used in future magnetic technologies.
This research clarifies fundamental relationships between magnetism, superconductivity and the nature of the enigmatic “pseudogap state" in cuprate superconductors. The discovery provides an additional puzzle piece in the theoretical understanding of high-temperature superconductors - a key towards improving and utilizing these materials for technological applications.
Topology, screws, spin and hedgehogs are words not normally found in the same scientific article but with the discovery of Weyl fermions in thin tellurine films they actually belong together. The work in this highlight describes how Qui et. al. used the unique properties of tellurine and high magnetic fields to identify the existence of Weyl fermions in a semiconductor. This discovery opens a new window into the intriguing world to topological materials.
Using electric fields as a switch to control the magnetism of a material is one of the goals behind the study of multiferroics. This work explores the microscopic origins of high temperature magnetism in one such material through the use of optical techniques in high magnetic fields, an approach that could help researchers understand magnetism in a large class of materials.
Nuclear magnetic resonance measurements were performed in the all-new 32 T superconducting magnet in an effort to confirm a new quantum state. Results confirm the game-changing nature of this magnet.
Researchers based at four-year colleges and universities outside of the Research-1 (R1) tier face more obstacles to performing research than their colleagues from R1 universities or national laboratories with robust research infrastructures. Recognizing the need to bridge this infrastructure gap, the MagLab's DC Field Facility expanded access by adding two low-field magnet systems. These "on-ramp" systems facilitate critical access to materials research instrumentation by faculty and students from non-R1 institutions.
A pane of window glass and a piece of quartz are both are transparent to light, but their atomic structure is very different. Quartz is crystalline at the atomic level while window glass is amorphous. This can also occur with magnetism at the atomic level in solids containing magnetic states such as antiferromagnetism (ordered) and spin-glass (disorded). This work describes the interaction (exchange bias) between ordered and disordered magnetic states and how the magnetic properties of the material are altered as a result.
The MagLab's 32 T all-superconducting magnet is now serving users at full field. An early experiment in the magnet identified an important milestone on the road to quantum computers.
Electrons in metals behave like chaotic bumper cars, crashing into each other at every opportunity. While they may be reckless drivers, this result demonstrates that this chaos has a limit established by the laws of quantum mechanics. Using the 45T hybrid magnet and a crystal of high-temperature superconducting material, scientists were able to measure this boundary using high fields to bend electron trajectories to their will.
Gallium nitride (GaN) and Niobium nitride (NbN) are widely used in today's technologies: GaN is used to make blue LEDs and high-frequency transistors while NbN is used to make infrared light detectors. This experiment explores whether a nitride-based device may be relevant for quantum technologies of the future.
Theory predicted that the transition between the superconducting and superfluid regimes should be continuous for electrons and holes in solid materials, but recent high magnetic field experiments performed by researchers from Columbia, Harvard and Brown Universities demonstrated the crossover between coupling regimes.
Three complementary measurements in intense magnetic fields shed light on a very unusual material that behaves like a metal, but does not conduct electricity!
In high-temperature superconductors, a region exists between the superconducting and normal states known as the pseudogap state. Using the 45T hybrid magnet, scientists have determined that magnetism plays a previously unknown role in the development of the pseudogap phase.
Using high magnetic fields and low temperatures, scientists were able to observe a complex set of quantum fluctuations in a Barium, Cobalt, Antimony and Oxygen compound that can cause ordered magnetic states upon application of a magnetic field, including an unusual tetracritical point in the phase diagram where four of the magnetic phases come together at a single point.
Probing one of the prominent classes of atomically-thin materials, the transition metal dichalcogenides, researchers found that while dark excitons are not optically responsive, they do interact with bright excitons and as a result, affect the lifetime and coherence of the bright excitons. Understanding the interaction between dark and bright excitons is critical to the future use of these materials in quantum information technologies.
Kagome is the name given to the traditional Japanese star-like pattern to form baskets. The same geometric pattern can be found in the crystal structure of certain materials and can give rise to frustrated magnetism, charge density waves, superconductivity and topological properties. In a star turn for geometry, the same pattern which has given strength and beauty to weaving for thousands of years is used by nature to produce materials with complex electronic behavior.
Research on a tungsten disulfide material (1T’-WS2) reveals a superconducting state that is able to carry an incredibly large amount of current within its superconducting layers - exceeding all other known two-dimensional superconductors.
This work demonstrates how heat is transmitted through elemental indium using thermal impedance spectroscopy. Spanning 5 orders of magnitude in frequency, this new technique yields a wealth of detailed information including the coupling of the nuclear spins to the lattice that match NMR measurements.
At ultra-low temperatures in the 32T all superconducting magnet, MagLab users fully mapped out the Fermi surface of UTe2, learning more about how electrons behave outside of the superconducting state(s) of this unique material.
In this study, researchers added a low concentration of the endohedral metallofullerene (EMF) Gd2@C79N to DNP samples, finding that 1H and 13C enhancements increased by 40% and 50%, respectively, at 5 teslas and 1.2 Kelvin.
This work investigates a series of oxoiron complexes that serve as models towards understanding the mechanism of catalysis for certain iron-containing enzymes.
Insights into the structure and movement of T cell surface proteins could lead to new ways to fight cancers, infections and other diseases.
The findings contribute to scientists' understanding of magnetic materials that could point the way to future applications.
Electron spin resonance work shows how transition metal can retain quantum information, important work on the path to next-generation quantum technologies.
This study reports the first transition metal compounds featuring mixed fluoride–cyanide ligands. A significant enhancement of the magnetic anisotropy, as compared to the pure fluoride ligated compounds, is demonstrated by combined analysis of high-field electron paramagnetic resonance (HF-EPR) spectroscopy and magnetization measurements.
This work reports the first observation of the dynamical generation of a spin polarized current from an antiferromagnetic material into an adjacent non-magnetic material and its subsequent conversion into electrical signals
An exciting advance of interest to future molecular-scale information storage. By using the uniquely high frequency Electron Magnetic Resonance techniques available at the MagLab, researchers have found single molecule magnets that feature direct metal orbital overlap (instead of weak superexchange interactions), resulting in behavior similar to metallic feromagnets that is far more suitable to future technologies than previous molecular magnets.
High-resolution electron magnetic resonance studies of the spin-wave spectrum in the high-field phase of the multiferroic Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) reveal direct evidence for the magnetoelastic coupling through a change in lattice symmetry from rhombohedral to monoclinic. This study provides important information for designing future spintronics devices based on BiFeO3.
Using far-infared magnetospectroscopy in high magnetic fields, scientists probed coupled electronic and vibrational modes in a molecular magnet that are of interest in future classical and quantum information applications.
Studying a mysterious magnetic material (Na2Co2TeO6) that could be used in future quantum computing schemes, researchers revealed the crucial role microscopic disorder in the crystals plays in affecting the macroscopic magnetic properties.
New materials that exhibit a strong coupling between magnetic and electric effects are of great interest for the development of high-sensitivity detectors and other devices. This paper reports on such a coupling in a specially designed material.
This research established experimental evidence for the long sought-after transition of a small, two-dimensional sheet of electrons to a solid state.
Study of helium atoms at low temperatures illuminate extreme quantum effects that were earlier predicted.
Ce3TiSb5 identified as a metallic magnet in which inverse melting does occur.
This highlight reports on the still poorly understood transition to an electron crystalline state (the Wigner crystal) in a two-dimensional system at extremely low densities, observable at low temperatures as a function of magnetic field. This experiment finds a surprising stabilization of the Wigner crystal arising from magnetic-field-induced spin alignment. Such electrically-delicate samples require the ultra-low-noise environment and experimental techniques available at the High B/T facility.
This highlight focuses on the development of new thermometry required to study quantum materials and phenomena in high magnetic fields and at ultralow temperatures. The team has demonstrated that exceedingly small quartz tuning forks bathed in liquid 3He maintain a constant calibration that is magnetic field independent, thereby opening the use of these devices as new sensors of the response of quantum systems.
Using the NMR techniques and ultra-low temperature facilities at the MagLab, atoms of a pure isotope of helium showed experimental signs of the Luttinger liquid theory, an exact quantum mechanical solution of interacting fermions in one-dimension.
Special protein-coupled receptors play a role in nearly all physiological responses and are targets for more than 1/3 of all FDA-approved drugs. State-of-the art instrumentation at the MagLab allowed researchers to explore the effects of different lipid compositions on receptor activation, hinting that hereditary or dietary factors may influence the effectiveness of drugs.
Magnetic resonance (MR) signals of sodium and potassium nuclei during ion binding are attracting increased attention as a potential biomarker of in vivo cell energy metabolism. This new analytical tool helps describe and visualize the results of MR experiments in the presence of in vivo ion binding.
Rhodium (Rh) is one of the most costly and scarce platinum group elements; however, it is of great importance in many technologies including catalytic converters, electronics, and medical devices. Here ultra-high magnetic field instruments and new NMR methodology at the MagLab unlocked access to perform 103Rh solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, a technique that can study the molecular structures of Rh-containing materials.
Analogous to the unique spectral fingerprint of any atom or molecule, researchers have measured the spectrum of optical excitations in monolayer tungsten diselenide (WSe2), which is a member of a new family of ultrathin semiconductors that are just one atomic layer thick.
Scientists used high magnetic fields and low temperatures to study crystals of URu2–xFexSi2. Using these conditions, they explored an intriguing state of matter called the "hidden order phase" that exhibits emergent behavior. Emergent behavior occurs when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, meaning the whole has exciting properties that its parts do not possess; it is an important concept in philosophy, the brain and theories of life. This data provide strict constraints on theories of emergent behavior.
Weyl metals such as tantalum arsenide (TaAs) are predicted to have novel properties arising from a chirality of their electron spins. Scientists induced an imbalance between the left- and right-handed spin states, resulting in a topologically protected current. This was the first time this phenomenon, known as the chiral anomaly, has been observed.
Using intense pulsed magnetic fields and measurements at low temperatures, MagLab users have found evidence of a long-sought “spin liquid” in terbium indium oxide (TbInO3)
In Sr3NiIrO6 vibrations in the crystal lattice (phonons) play an important role in its intriguing magnetic properties that result in a very high coercive field of 55 T. Using a combination of pulsed and DC magnetic fields coupled with magnetization and far-infrared spectroscopy, researchers were able to conclusively link the phonons to the magnetic behavior.
Researchers demonstrate a new record magnetoresistance in graphene by improving the contacting method, which helps improve our understanding of the material and can be useful in future sensors, compasses and other applications.
Superconductors conduct large amounts of electricity without losses. They are also used to create very large magnetic fields, for example in MRI machines, to study materials and medicine. Here, researchers developed a fast, new "smart" technique to measure how much current a superconductor can carry using very high pulsed magnetic fields.
Interactions between electrons underpin some of the most interesting – and useful -- effects in materials science and condensed-matter physics. This work demonstrates that, in the new family of so-called "monolayer semiconductors" that are only one atomic layer thick, electron-electron interactions can lead to the sudden and spontaneous formation of a magnetized state, analogous to the appearance of magnetism in conventional materials like iron.
Physics does not yet know why copper-based superconductors (cuprates) conduct electrical current without dissipation at unprecedentedly high temperatures. Ultra high magnetic fields are used here to suppress superconductivity in a cuprate near absolute zero temperature, revealing an underlying transition to an electronic phase that might be the cause of the superconductivity.
Scientists at the Pulsed Field Facility recently found that applying an intense magnetic field to the mineral atacamite (a "frustrated" quantum magnet) yields unusual behavior associated with a novel state of matter known as quantum spin liquid.
In everyday life, phase transitions - like when water boils and turns into steam or freezes and becomes ice - are caused by changes in temperature. Here, very high magnetic fields are used to reveal a quantum phase transition not caused by temperature, but instead driven by quantum mechanics upon changing the concentration of electrons, work that could hold critical clues that explain high-temperature superconductivity.
A new class of correlated quasiparticle states discovered in a multi-valley semiconductor using optical absorption measurements in pulsed magnetic fields. This new type of multi-particle state results when excitons interact simultaneously with multiple electron reservoirs that are quantum-mechanically distinguishable by virtue of having different spin and/or valley quantum numbers.
Generally, light transmission is symmetrical - it's the same if you shine a light through a material forward or backwards. Using powerful pulsed fields, researchers revealed one-way transparency in a nickel-tellurium-oxygen based material showing that light flows one way across the telecom range – a finding that opens the door to exciting new photonics applications.
A defining experimental signature of a crossover in the strength of the pairing interactions from the weak coupling BCS to the strong coupling Bose-Einstein condensation limit has been discovered in high temperature superconductors.
Using pulses of far-infrared light and large magnetic fields, we directly measured the cyclotron resonance of charge carriers in a high-temperature superconductor for the first time, providing a new measure of their mass.
The electrical resistance of ring-shaped TaSe3 devices was measured in magnetic fields of up to 60 T and at temperatures down to 0.6 K. High-field experiments on these devices show that changes in the microscopic quantum mechanical behavior of electrons in TaSe3 can be controlled by tiny mechanical forces, suggesting a completely new route towards very responsive sensors and devices.
Scientists investigated a magnetic compound, identifying a possible spin liquid phase in a quantum material that may be a candidate for robust quantum information technologies.
Pulsed magnetic fields of up to 75 T were applied at many different angles to a newly discovered metal, CsV3Sb5, in temperatures down to 0.5 K. Unusual oscillations in the metal’s electrical conductivity were found, giving definitive evidence of Chern pockets, a key indicator of a quantum mechanical property known as topology. Topology promises to be invaluable in future electronic devices that will work on completely new quantum principles.
Pulsed magnets are designed to operate near their structural limits to be able to generate extremely high magnetic fields. The coils have a limited life expectancy and thus need to be replaced on occasion. Fabrication of these large coils are now being done at the MagLab where advanced nondestructive examinations can be performed. Because of more rigorous quality controls and improvements in high-strength conductors and reinforcement materials, the lifetime of these coils can be extended.
Tests of the first Integrated Coil Form test coil wound using REBCO superconducting tape show promise for use in ultra powerful magnets of the future.
A recent test coil with more than 1300 meters of conductor successfully demonstrated a new winding technique for insulated REBCO technology and was fatigue cycled to high strain for hundreds of cycles. This is the MagLab's first "two-in-hand" wound coil and the first fatigue cycling test of a coil of this size, both of which are very important milestones on the path to a 40T user magnet.
Three non-destructive testing methods are developed for inspection of high strength, high conductivity wires which are used to wind ultra-high field pulsed magnets at the National MagLab. We expect the lifetime of future magnets to exceed those of past magnets due to these improvements in quality control.
A new device enables the testing of superconducting cables to high current without the high helium consumption associated with traditional current leads. This superconducting transformer will play an important role in testing cables needed for next-generation superconducting magnets.
The MagLab's ultrahigh-field pulsed magnets require materials with both high mechanical strength and high electrical conductivity. One of these materials is Glidcop® AL-60, an alumina particle strengthened copper. This research studies the microstructure of this material to improve the construction and endurance of these magnets.
Recent measurements of superconducting tapes in the MagLab's 45-tesla hybrid magnet shows that the power function dependence of current on magnetic field remains valid up to 45T in liquid helium, while for magnetic field in the plane of the tape conductor, almost no magnetic field dependence is observed. Thus design of ultra-high-field magnets capable of reaching 50T and higher is feasible using the latest high-critical current density REBCO tape.
Researchers working to push the high temperature superconducting material (Bi-2212) to the forefront of superconducting magnet technology have used novel characterization methods to understand the complex relationship between its processing and its superconducting properties, specifically its current carrying capabilities.
Researchers studied the mechanics of supercurrent flow in state-of-the-art Bi-2212 superconducting round wires and learned that the microstructure of the superconducting filaments is inherently resilient, work that could open the door to new opportunities to raise supercurrent capacity of Bi-2212 round wires.
Large superconducting magnets need multi-conductor cables, which act like multi-lane freeways to allow electricity to switch lanes if one gets blocked. Here cross-sectional images of CORC wires reveal insights to improve the contact between conductors.
New work on round wires made with Bi-2212, a superconducting material, feature efficiency and performance that could enable the next generation of powerful magnets. Magnets made with these Bi-2212 round wires will enable nuclear fusion energy efforts, along with other applications where superconducting magnets are frequently charged and discharged during regular operation.
High magnetic fields are essential for many exciting scientific and industrial applications including next-generation MRI, particle accelerators, fusion, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Here, a Bi-2212 high-temperature superconducting test coil demonstrated robust operation up to 34T, expanding the options for future magnet development pathways.
High temperature superconducting magnets offer tremendous potential for technological advancements and scientific discoveries, making them essential in various aspects of modern society. This work focuses on a milestone in mechanical reinforcement and overall operation of a Bi-2212 magnet.
Made with high-temperature superconductors, the National MagLab's newest instrument shatters a world record and opens new frontiers in science.
Combining tremendous strength with a high-quality field, the MagLab’s newest instrument promises big advances in interdisciplinary research.
The new 41.4-tesla instrument reclaims a title for the lab and paves the way for breakthroughs in physics and materials research.
Physicists prove a 30-year-old theory — the even-denominator fractional quantum Hall state — and establish bilayer graphene as a promising platform that could lead to quantum computation.
Scientists and science communicators team up in playful bout that engages physics fans worldwide.
This research is a promising first step toward finding a way to use graphene as a transistor, an achievement that would have widespread applications.
A material already known for its unique behavior is found to carry current in a way never before observed.
With funding from the National Science Foundation, scientists and engineers will determine the best way to build a new class of record-breaking instruments.
"Kondo metamagnet" is first in a family of eccentric quantum crystals
Ultrafast manipulation of material properties with light could stimulate the development of novel electronics, including quantum computers.
With a twist and a squeeze, researchers discover a new method to manipulate the electrical conductivity of this game-changing "wonder material."
A young computer programmer was surprised by not one, but two awards for building systems crucial to running the lab's magnets.
In a hydrogen-packed compound squeezed to ultra-high pressures, scientists have observed electrical current with zero resistance tantalizingly close to room temperature.
In a crystalline structure that locks a heavy atom in a metal cage, scientists find a key to materials that can turn heat into electricity, and vice versa.
The compact coil could lead to a new generation of magnets for biomedical research, nuclear fusion reactors and many applications in between.
Emergence of unusual metallic state supports role of "charge stripes" in formation of charge-carrier pairs essential to resistance-free flow of electrical current.
A new study reveals a suite of quantum Hall states that have not been seen previously, shedding new light on the nature of electron interactions in quantum systems and establishing a potential new platform for future quantum computers.
Move aside, electrons; it's time to make way for the trion.
Physicist Christianne Beekman and chemist Yan-Yan Hu have been recognized as outstanding early-career researchers by the National Science Foundation.
Rising from his post as deputy director, Mark Meisel plans to introduce new instruments and techniques to the facility.
In a uranium-based compound once dismissed as boring, scientists watched superconductivity arise, perish, then return to life under the influence of high magnetic fields.
MagLab Chief Scientist Laura Greene recognized by the Tallahassee Scientific Society for her exemplary career achievements in science and contributions to science education and outreach.
A new experimental technique allowed physicists to precisely probe the electron spins of an intriguing compound and uncover unexpected behavior.
Marcelo Jaime recognized for his contributions to experimental physics in high magnetic fields.
A story of synergistic science showcases how theory and experimental research teamed up to yield first direct evidence of the nature of superconductivity in a promising material called magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene.
Greg Boebinger, director of the Florida State University-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, has been named a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers define calculation framework to explain why electrons traveling in any direction in a strange metal follow the "Planckian limit.”
Laura Greene is joining a prestigious group of advisors on US science and technology.
MagLab users have discovered that magnetism is key to understanding the behavior of electrons in high-temperature superconductors.
Using a special technique performed in the MagLab's high fields, researchers have uncovered a method to understand spin ice materials.
Game-changing technology may hold the key to ever-stronger magnets needed by scientists.
A new record for a trapped field in a superconductor could herald the arrival of materials in a broad range of fields.
The new superconducting material, called potassium tantalate, is capable of withstanding substantial magnetic fields.
Researchers now have a better understanding of how even a slight tug changes the marvel material.
The award recognizes those who've had an "outstanding, widespread, and lasting impact on the teaching of physics."
A team of MagLab scientists has been working on the superconducting wires for new electromagnets that will improve physics research at the Large Hadron Collider.
Dr. Amm to oversee world's largest and highest-powered magnet lab.
The award from the National Eagle Scout Association recognizes Eagle Scouts for professional accomplishments and volunteering.
Our magnets are like world-class athletes: powerful, but to stay in scientific shape, they need to eat and drink – a lot.
After a series of frustrating failures, a team of MagLab scientists realized they were tackling the wrong problem.
A material that you may never have heard of could be paving the way for a new electronic revolution.
Deep in their beautiful lattices, crystals hold secrets about the future of technology and science. Ryan Baumbach aims to find them.
At the National MagLab, scientists have been experimenting for years on materials first dreamed up by the newest physics Nobel laureates decades ago.
Using high-field electromagnets, scientists explore a promising alternative to the increasingly expensive rare earth element - neodymium - widely used in motors.
How do you keep the world's largest magnet lab clean? With a super-sized cyborg, of course!
MagLab experts fine-tuned a furnace for pressure-cooking a novel superconducting magnet. Now they're about to build its big brother.
Two MagLab teams tried marrying vastly different technologies to build a new type of magnet: the Series Connected Hybrid. Decades later, has the oddball pairing panned out?
Can thin films be designed for future quantum technologies? With a prestigious prize from the National Science Foundation, MagLab physicist Christianne Beekman wants to find out.
Undergrad streamlines maintenance routine with touch-screen technology
Scientists probing the exotic, 2D realm are discovering astonishing behaviors that could revolutionize our 3D world.
This high performance Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) machine is known as the “witches hat” machine because of the black cones to absorb pulses of radiation.
Meet Jiaqi Cai, researcher from the University of Washington, and learn more about how the MagLab's DC Field magnets help him explore topological materials.
What's it like to be a remote user at the National MagLab? Learn from this frequent MagLab user who performed experiments on the 32T from across the country.
This frequent MagLab visitor talks about the allure of sci-fi, the road not taken as an engineer, and how he acts like a scientist, even when he’s off the clock.
This MagLab user talks about meeting Leonardo da Vinci, making magnetic soup and the freedom of being a scientist.
Nicolas Doiron-Leyraud of Canada's Université de Sherbrooke talks about his recent experiments on cuprate superconductors, why he chose physics over philosophy, and what makes the MagLab a great place to do science.
A faraday cage is an important tool for some scientists at the MagLab. But they don't workwithit — they work inside it.
A scientist combines high magnetic fields with ultra short laser pulses to probe the mysteries of photosynthesis.
The intriguing structure and properties of a uranium alloy hold clues about some of the most interesting and promising materials studied by physicists today.
One of the best tools for testing new materials for the next generation of research magnets is a MagLab magnet.
Two researchers play with nanostructures in a fun, fertile physics playground: the space between two things.
Hill, originally from outside Oxford, England, talks about the path to a career in science and how he ended up at the helm of a program that had helped to shape his own career.
Physicist Ross McDonald pushes experimental boundaries with his work in Los Alamos.
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